


Heartless

by Nival_Vixen



Series: Chaos-verse [4]
Category: Sky High (2005)
Genre: Betrayal, Complete, F/M, Heroes to Villains, Mother-Daughter Relationship, World Domination
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-10
Updated: 2016-08-10
Packaged: 2018-08-07 21:19:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7730125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nival_Vixen/pseuds/Nival_Vixen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jenny Williams isn't a heartless person. All she wants is for her daughter to be happy. Even if Layla chooses the side of evil.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heartless

Jenny Williams was not a heartless person. Anyone who met her would attest to that. She was kind, forgiving of most things, and loving towards all creatures, great or small. She could talk with animals, but there were few who knew this small fact. Jenny loved her daughter, wanted only her happiness and health, and hoped that she had raised her well enough to make the right decisions in life. Up until a few months ago, Jenny had thought that her daughter had been making all the right decisions.

Layla was friends with a few heroes and sidekicks (sorry, hero support) at Sky High, all of whom seemed nice enough. There were study sessions with the entire group, as well as some with just Will and Layla together that were a ruse that Jenny didn't believe for one second. Then something had happened to them, and Layla had come home from Sky High one afternoon looking absolutely desolate and stunned. She hadn't pestered her daughter for information, seeing that she was still too shocked to be answer her own internal questions, let alone her mother's.

Jenny eventually found out from Josie that Will and Layla had broken up, and while Jetstream hadn't said who had dumped whom, the look on her daughter's face had been enough to figure it out. It was only a few weeks later, when there was suddenly a fridge full of lemons and Jenny realising that the fruit was out of season that she discovered her daughter could now make lemons. Something sour had happened in her life to make it happen through her powers.

A few weeks later, Layla stopped being a Sidekick (oh, who was she kidding? It was always heroes and sidekicks, no matter what pretty labels Sky High tried to cover it with) and joined the Hero track. Jenny saw less of Will and Layla's sidekick friends, and more of Warren Peace. While she didn't consider this an entirely bad thing - Warren had saved Sky High along with the other homecoming heroes - it wasn't exactly the kind of friendship she had hoped her daughter would have. Then she forced herself to remember the look on Layla's face after Will had dumped her, and Jenny concluded that maybe Warren wasn't as bad as everyone thought he was.

Oh, if only she'd listened to her instincts on that. Maybe if she'd tried to take more control over her daughter's life, then all of this wouldn't be happening today. But Jenny knew that if she had tried to do that, Layla probably would have rebelled and shunned her all that much sooner. Her beautiful, stubborn and headstrong daughter had never been one for following social rules and listening to people in authority. Jenny wondered if she was to blame, with all of the animal peace protests she'd taken Layla to, or if it was just the way her daughter would have turned out anyway. It didn't matter either way. Warren had come into Layla's life just as suddenly as Will had departed, and when she'd heard her daughter laughing, Jenny could have hugged the young man for making Layla smile again.

Layla and Warren studied together in the living room nearly every day, quietly talking over problems and exercises. Content that her daughter would be safe, Jenny stayed at her work - a veterinary practice - longer and longer each night. She often returned in the late hours of the night (or early hours of the morning if there had been an emergency) to find Warren and Layla sitting next to each other on the lounge, both of them asleep and her head resting on his shoulder. At first, Jenny would wake them up and get Layla into bed so Warren could have the couch, knowing that they would wake up stiff and sore in the morning otherwise. However, as time progressed the head-resting-on-shoulders changed to arms-around-waists, legs-over-laps, eventually plateauing with Layla sitting in Warren's lap with his arms around her waist, Jenny felt less inclined to wake them up. Especially as the time or two she'd tried had resulted in fire-scorched holes in her favourite blanket. By the end of Layla's junior year, Jenny no longer saw them together on the couch, and could hear lust-driven moans coming from her daughter's room more often than not. She'd sat them down, making sure that they were still concentrating on their studies and were being safe. She'd hoped that they were both making the right choices, but didn't want to impose anything on them so long as they were both comfortable and ready for what they were doing, as well as any consequences that may occur.

When Layla graduated from her senior year at Sky High, Jenny sat beside Warren in the crowd. When she'd seen the look Will had given to a girl with purple hair as he proposed to her in front of everyone (she vaguely recognised her as Magenta, Layla's former friend. A shapeshifter. Into a hamster or a rat, something like that?), Jenny finally understood the look of betrayal and shock that had been on Layla's face almost three years ago.

Jenny hadn't been surprised when Layla announced a few months after graduation that she was moving in with Warren. As super-work was hard to come by with the Stronghold Three defeating nearly everything in sight before any other supers had a chance to know about it, Layla had taken a job in the council. Her business card stated that she was the Mayor's personal assistant, but to the super-world of Maxville, Layla was the one who alerted all of the supers to any danger or threats that needed to be dealt with.

However, when the biggest and deadliest threat rose to take over Maxville, the super-world's centre, there were no calls or messages to warn anyone of this villainous duo. Of course there wasn't. What sort of villain would warn the enemy that they were about to devastate the entire world through kidnapping and murder?

It had taken Will three whole days before he realised that his fiance was missing. He alerted the Mayor immediately to Magenta's disappearance, who had Layla call for the best detective and finders the super-world had to offer. Layla replied that they were all busy, out of town, sick with the flu, visiting family interstate or overseas, and the Mayor had no reason not to believe her. With this development, the Stronghold Three had gone looking for Magenta themselves. Zach and Ethan had offered to help the search, but without any super skills for finding things, they were ultimately unsuccessful, and the two sidekicks soon returned home defeated. It wasn't until Magenta was placed in the town square days later, bound, gagged, and bloody that anyone discovered her.

As the Stronghold Three went to save her, calls for another two threats came from the Mayor's office. The Commander and Jetstream decided that since Magenta was in plain view at the town square she would remain there and be safe while they dealt with the new threats on the opposite sides of town. After a short argument, Will eventually agreed and went to deal with one threat while his parents left to handle the other one. When they each reached their destination, only to find nothing there, the penny finally dropped, and Will and Jetstream flew as fast as they could to the Maxville town square.

Awaiting them were the villainous duo, Chaos. Magenta was between them, thorn-covered vines holding her down and preventing her escape. The Stronghold Three moved straight to her, standing in the middle of a circle of petrol that they'd mistaken for water. The petrol lit up in a blaze of flames, all three heroes dropping to their knees at the sudden and intense heat. Vines shot into the fire, unaffected by the heat, and pulled the three out in a moment. Spandex charred, faces starting to blister, capes on fire, the Stronghold Three had seemed pitiful before these villains, dressed in green, black and red with similarly-coloured masks covering their faces.

By threatening Magenta's life, it didn't take long to make Will relent and stay bowed before the villains. Though his parents obviously didn't agree, they stayed where they were as well. Magenta was thrown towards them, and the moment she was beside him, Will stood up to rush and imprison or even kill the villains for daring to threaten his fiance. He didn't manage a single step before the puddle he was standing in went up in flames. Unlike the previous circle, which had been orchestrated to simply surprise and hold them prisoner, this circle was completely made up of petrol, and connected to several other puddles by small lines. The moment Will stood to get his revenge, the main puddle lit up, all of the others soon exploding around them. Covered in petrol as they were, Will and Magenta were burned alive.

Held where they were with vines and flames surrounding them completely, their bodies charred from the fire and slowly dying from the poisonous vines, the Commander and Jetstream were stuck. He didn't have energy to break the vines, and Jetstream was too weakened to carry them both out of the flames. She refused to leave without him, and they died listening to their son and future-daughter-in-law scream in agony. Their own screams soon followed after, the poison and fire working together to agonise them before their deaths.

Standing in front of the statue of the Stronghold Three, Chaos watched as the city's and world's saviours died.

Ever since Magenta had been discovered only hours ago, news choppers and vans had congregated around the town square. Despite the passage to Magenta's bound body being presumably clear of obstacles, everyone had stayed back. There was an etiquette to these things: arrive at the scene, take the money shot of the villains in whichever pose they required while waiting for the heroes to arrive, then there was the ever-important shot of the heroes flying in to save the day (or the damsel in distress, as the case may be), a few different angles of the sometimes-spectacular fight between good and evil, some more waiting until the heroes deemed it was safe for the police to arrest the villains, another shot of the Commander taking his trophy, and only when that was done could they then pounce like vultures in order to get their articles from the heroes. Everyone gets their story, the heroes pictures are plastered on the front page, and everyone can pat themselves on the back with a job well done. Obviously, this one hadn't gone the way it should have. It took almost five whole minutes before anyone, reporter or otherwise, realised that they needed to report this in some way, shape or form. By the time the cameras and journalists were ready, Chaos had disappeared in a literal cloud of smoke.

For a whole day, which was filled with mourning, tears, speculation, and accusations left, right and centre, nothing more was heard of Chaos. When Jenny had heard about the vines and fire, she had suspected Layla and Warren, but immediately dismissed the thought. Neither one of them had the capacity to kill another person, she was sure of it. Yet, for the rest of that night, there was still a niggling at the back of her mind, making her think of the times she'd come into the room in Layla's senior year to have them stop talking suddenly, or covering pictures and pages of notes with books or innocent assignments. She thought of the time she'd heard them practising their evil laughs, thinking it was just a joke (and they'd said something about a horrible Doctor that had made sense at the time). Jenny had seen Warren and Layla practicing their powers in the backyard on weekends, watching as he twirled flames around thorn-covered vines, allowing herself to become entranced by the sight rather than frightened as she should have been. For the whole day, these thoughts and more ran through Jenny's mind. She was so distracted that she didn't hear Brutus the dog talking to her until he came up and licked her hand to get her attention before demanding to go for a walk.

It seemed that that day had been nothing but the calm before the storm. Or, to be more precise, that single day or mourning was the eye of the storm. Damage had already been done the day before, and even more damage would be done on the day after.

Maxville woke up in flames. Overnight, a large factory on the outskirts of town had burnt to the ground, killing forty people inside it. While most thought it to be an abandoned building, the supers knew that it was actually Maxville's Super Prison. While the fact that so many villains had been killed would have made more than one superhero rejoice, ten of the forty people had been superheroes that guarded the prisoners. These villains didn't seem to care about heroes any more than they did fellow villains, and that scared supers the world over more than they cared to admit.

Most went to bed that night, still not recovered from the shock of the fire. Later that night when nearly everyone was in bed, more villains appeared throughout Maxville. Some thought that the villains had been released from Maxville, but no one recognised the people that were clad in green, black, and red. Watching on the news, Jenny was almost positive she saw a bright flash of white-blonde hair behind one mask, another mask hiding glasses and dark skin. There was little time to analyse who was who, but it was more than obvious that they were loyal to the original Chaos duo who had taken over the Mayor's office building. All of these villains attacked the homes and secret lairs of every super in Maxville, whether with their own powers or arson attacks. Few people survived, and when Jenny returned to her home later that night to find it burned to the ground, she wondered if her daughter knew that she hadn't been home.

Chaos personally dealt with the supers that their team hadn't taken out, whether by accident or on purpose, no one was quite sure. That is, all of them except for Jenny. She waited in the veterinary practice day in, night out, waiting for the time her daughter would call on her to fight. Warren's mother had been one of the first to oppose them and lose, but the dark-haired partner of Chaos hadn't seemed to care as he watched his mother burn into ash. Jenny talked to the animals less and less, knowing that they would try to protect her and be hurt in the process. Jenny refused to let anyone be hurt on her behalf. She would face Chaos and perish without causing unnecessary pain to the animals she worked so hard to keep alive.

As the amount of superheroes lessened with every passing week, and those loyal to Chaos grew and grew, Jenny wondered who in the super world was left to oppose them. Apparently, there weren't many, because the next week she received a letter. It was a plain slip of paper, no envelope or postage stamp, and the words she read were cruel and mocking.

 _Since you're obviously waiting for an invitation, here it is. Come and defeat us, if you think you can_.

Jenny organised everything to continue after her death, getting a veterinarian from Westville to take over the practice if anything should happen. It took a lot of cajoling to get him to agree as he was worried being in Maxville where Chaos reigned, but he eventually did agree, and she continued to prepare. On the morning she planned to meet Chaos, Jenny put sleeping medication in the food of the animals. She didn't want them to escape while she was fighting and get hurt trying to protect her. She loved each of the animals as if they were her own children (oh, wasn't that ironic? She loved them as much as she did her own daughter, yet she was going to try and defeat her), and it would kill her to see them hurt over this. When she was sure that they had all gone to sleep, Jenny set off for the town square.

The streets were deserted. Flames licked at a few houses, people branded traitors to Chaos and their team. Despite this, everywhere Jenny looked, the plants were in bloom. Flowers were open, trees filled with healthy green leaves, fruit ripe in every orchard, crops in the far outskirts of Maxville swaying and ready to be harvested. All fires that were used to destroy people or houses were put out immediately, no further damage done to anything other than the intended victim. It was a twisted sense of balance, and it made Jenny feel sickened.

She reached the town square within half an hour, wondering exactly what to do next. Knock on the door and call out a polite ' _hello, is anyone here? I've come to fight you!_ '? Jenny kept an eye on the ground, careful not to tread in the inconspicious puddles at her feet. There was a bright flash of light to her right, and she looked over to see a white-blonde young man in the uniform of Chaos.

"You've been expected. This way," he said, turning around and leading her away.

He didn't bother to make sure that she was following, and she supposed it didn't matter if he did anyway. If she decided to run away now, then she would be dead before the sun set that evening; Chaos had a way of finding whoever deserted the fight. If she stayed, she would follow him now. There was no point in trying to find another way into the headquarters of Chaos. After many attempts and more deaths, it was concluded that there was only the entrance and the side doorway that lead into The Pit.

The Pit was a space beneath the former-Mayor's office that had been hollowed out by some method and was used to film the fights between Chaos and their opponents. The Channel 5 news reporter, Brian Anderson had been given permission to set up a camera in The Pit, a time stamp on the bottom corner showing that it was live as it was broadcast to the world, as well as the TV screen right outside of the Chaos building. In the beginning, when superheroes had fought against Chaos, people placed bets on who would win, who would cry, who would try to run away. Since every opponent lost, everyone cried, all of them tried to run away, the bets were changed to time limits instead. The most famous incident had Freeze Girl losing, breaking down into tears and trying to run away all within a minute of making her way into The Pit.

A bright flash of light brought Jenny out of her thoughts and she looked to Zach (she was certain it was him now, the lanky frame not hidden in the Chaos uniform, and the white-blonde hair was stuck up slightly behind the mask), wondering what happened now.

"Go through the door. Chaos will be in to meet you soon," he said, staying lit enough so that she could see the door handle.

Jenny licked her lips nervously and nodded. "Thank you, Zach."

He didn't seem startled that she knew his name, nor gave any indication of knowing her. She supposed it was best that way, especially if he had to do this with every superhero that challenged Chaos. With another nod, more for herself than anyone else's benefit, Jenny stepped forward and opened the door. Stepping through the doorway, she straightened her shoulders and Fauna was ready to face her opponents.

As she stepped inside, a row of sconces lit up along the walls, and Fauna saw a table, rather than The Pit as she had expected. A TV screen was along the wall opposite to the sconces, and Chaos themselves were sitting at the end of the table furthest from her.

"Please, sit down. We only have a few minutes before we're scheduled to start," Poison said, almost as pleasantly as Layla might have done.

"Go on already, we won't bite you," Fire added, a grin on his lips that could have been Warren's once upon a time.

Wary, she sat down on the only chair that was at the end of the table. No vines shot out to keep her there, no sudden pool of petrol lighting up and engulfing her, no form of hostility from either one of them. Fauna was suspicious at this lack of hostility, wondering what was stopping her from attacking them right at this very second.

In the shadows behind Chaos there was movement as two people stepped forward. One she recognised as a bully from Sky High, the very same one who had teased and taunted Warren with his speed. Dash, Fast, Speedy? Something like that, at least. The person beside him was a woman, so that ruled out that stretchy-boy, but as Fauna looked at her a bit longer, she realised that she did in fact recognise her. Her super name was Hourglass, and she'd been a freshman a few years after Fauna had graduated. The last she'd heard, Hourglass had managed to retire when she was still a teenager, rich from all of the lotteries she'd won with her future-seeing talent. A small smile graced Hourglass' lips, and Fauna remembered too late that she also had a latent ability to read thoughts. Maybe over the years it had developed, as her own skills had?

"It has developed, actually. And to answer your first thought, Speed and I are what's stopping you or anyone else who sits in this room from hurting Chaos," Hourglass said, her voice quiet yet managing to reach her across the room. "I only used my talent to win the lottery because I had already seen what Chaos would do, and what the world would become. I knew that they would need the money, and I was one of the few who could give it to them without needing anything other than their reign in return."

"Hourglass, dear? You're monologuing," Poison prompted her with a white-toothed smile.

Somewhere deep down, Jenny was happy to note that her daughter was still brushing her teeth regularly. She had no idea if supervillains had their own brand of toothpaste or simply didn't brush, but most villains that she'd seen all had yellow and plaque-covered teeth.

Laughter from Hourglass shook Fauna from her thoughts, and she tried not to smile in response.

"Oh, do be quiet, Hourglass. I'm trying to rule the world here," Poison muttered, waving Hourglass back into the shadows.

Beside her, Fire muttered something about crazy seers, but she just rolled her eyes at him and then returned her attention to Fauna once more.

"I do apologise. I can assure you that we're usually more professional than this meeting may make us seem. Now, onto the business at hand," Poison said, a vine pushing papers down towards Fauna. "This is a contract for you to pledge your loyalty to us. Every super, villain or hero, is offered this before we enter The Pit. If you sign, then you will be given new accommodation, a uniform, and keep your secret identity. If you do not, then you will be forced to watch your loved ones die, and then be killed in The Pit."

"You're going to kill yourself?" Jenny asked, frowning for a moment.

Poison looked perplexed, but then smiled and shook her head. "I forgot that you believe you love me... Allow me to clear up any confusion," she said, pressing a button on the table.

A moment later, she took the remote control from the open space, pointing it at the television. A small beep sounded and a familiar picture filled the screen. Jenny was looking at her veterinary practice.

"It's in real time, if you want to check the clock above the TV to confirm," Fire added, and her gaze immediately went from the screen to the clock.

Both said the same time, and there was a sinking feeling in her stomach about what would happen next. She was just thankful that she'd given the animals sleeping medication before leaving.

Hourglass leaned forward to murmur something in Poison's ear, and she nodded in response before looking to Fauna again.

"Actually, the animals aren't asleep. I knew that you would put them to sleep before leaving, so I had Speed go in and switch the medication while you were out checking your mailbox. Every animal is wide awake," Poison added, turning the volume up.

To everyone else, it was nothing more than noise and sounds of barking, chirping, meowing, and other animal-like sounds, but to Fauna, the words were as clear as day. They were all worried about her, a few trying to plan a way out of the locked building, others yelling at the intruders outside, and even more worry for her. She gripped her chair tightly, her entire body tense as she had the urge to run back to the animals and tell them that she was fine, if only they would forgive her.

"If you could make up your mind, we have a fight to win," Fire said, prompting her to look at the contract once more.

"But if I sign the contract, why do you still have to fight?"

"To please the public, of course. We have quite a gathering, and since you are the last superhero to oppose us, the bets have been raised considerably higher," Poison said. "If you sign the contract, we make it look like we hurt or kill you. If you don't, then we really do hurt or kill you. It's fairly simple, really."

"Some of the acting is awful though. Freeze Girl's performance almost ruined the whole thing," Fire muttered, rolling his eyes.

"Yes, well, she  _was_ distraught after we set fire to her beanie baby collection."

Jenny almost smiled at their banter, reminded of how they had been together before turning evil. They'd laughed, bantering over the most ridiculous things, half of it not making sense to her, but still making her smile at the sounds of their mingled voices and laughter.

"Will you sign the contract?" Chaos asked her in unison, the banter gone in a moment.

"No."

There was a flash of emotion in Poison's face, and for a moment, she could swear that it was sadness, but it was gone a moment later, and Fauna convinced herself that it was just a trick of the light. Chaos stood up as one, their hands clasped together tightly.

"As we're now running late, we will not kill you in The Pit. You will be kept alive, and then you will see the death of your beloved animals as you die slowly and painfully," Poison promised.

"We will see you in The Pit in five minutes," Fire added, leaving through the door behind them, his arm around Poison's waist.

Hourglass and Speed waited until the door had closed completely before moving towards her. Speed lifted her out of the chair without a word of warning, exiting through the door she'd entered in. As they sped along, Fauna lost track of how many twists and turns there were, how many lefts and rights were taken, how many corridors she'd been carried through. Speed stopped abruptly, setting her on her feet once more. She felt steadier than she thought she would, and turned to face the door.

"If you reconsider your allegiance, you can yield," Speed informs her, his voice quiet in the empty corridor.

"How do I know that they'll keep to that and not just roast me alive?"

"I'm still alive," he replied with a shrug.

"You yielded?"

He nodded in response. "Lash was killed by Poison's vines, and I didn't want to die... It's not as bad as you'd think, really. Sure, some people are stubborn and people can die if Chaos aren't happy, but there's health benefits, and holiday pay."

"Why wouldn't Chaos be happy?" she asked, trying to wrap her mind around holiday pay for villains. _Just where would they go on holiday, anyway?_

"Well, after Fire's Mum refused to sign the contract, he kind of went on a rampage and burned everything around him. It took Poison a whole week to regrow the forest, and I swear Deception's never had a harder time trying to make sure that no one noticed a whole forest was missing for seven straight days," Speed said, grinning briefly. "And Poison kept making him change the colour of leaves because she was certain that they weren't right and someone would notice."

"Why would she take the time to regrow the forest? Why not just let it die?"

"Are you kidding me? This is  _Poison_ we're talking about. It's in the contract that any damage done needs to be fixed immediately, including any damage done by Chaos themselves. She's still the same as she was when she was younger. Just a bit more prone to poisoning people that are trying to kill her, rather than stringing them up to the roof by vines."

Fauna didn't respond, and didn't have time to anyway. The door in front of her opened, and she stepped through a few seconds later.

The conversation with Speed played in her mind, and she barely registered Brian Anderson's voice as he introduced her as the last superhero to face Chaos. She watched as they stepped from the top cliff of The Pit, a vine staircase leading them down with all of the elegance of Cinderella and her Prince. She watched as Fire looked down at Poison, his hand in hers, and his expression softening. Jenny recognised the small frown on his face, having seen it before. It was the one Warren usually gave Layla when he was sure that she was hiding her emotions and trying to be braver than she was feeling. Looking back to Poison, to Layla, to her daughter, Jenny saw the emotions hidden behind her mask.

Oh, how could she do this to her own daughter? She'd only wanted her to be happy, and seeing her in that meeting room, Jenny knew that Layla really  _was_ happy. Even if she was evil and intent on conquering the world. Layla was happy and healthy, and wasn't that all that she'd ever wanted for her daughter?

The siren sounded loudly, Poison and Fire stepping forward as one. A vine shot out, flames twirled around the fire-resistant length. It reminded Jenny of when they'd practiced this very thing in her backyard all those years ago, bandaging Layla's hands when the vines caught on fire, or removing splinters from Warren's hands when the vines were too close. She'd bought them gloves that Christmas, and could still picture Layla's delight and Warren's stunned surprise at the unexpected presents.

Dodging the fire-covered vine, Fauna turned to face Chaos quickly. As she did, she heard the chatter of the insects in the ground, word having travelled from her veterinary practice already. The insects were planning to attack Chaos, fire ants and poisonous spiders beginning to crawl their way along and under the ground itself to fight for her. Fauna could have let them do it. They were determined animals, and no amount of bug spray would dissuade them to kill for her. Fauna told the animals to stay where they were, and then she dropped to her knees, yielding the fight.

She was sure she could hear the booing of the crowd outside, but seeing the delighted look on Poison's face, she could care less about what they thought.

Once the cameras had been turned off now that the fight was over, the door behind Jenny opened and Hourglass stepped inside with a knowing smile. She offered her hand to help Jenny to her feet, and then led her to to a different room so she could receive her new uniform.

Jenny Williams isn't heartless. She is kind, forgives more than most, and loves animals, but she loves her daughter even more. She only wants Poison to be happy and healthy, even if she doesn't make the decisions that Jenny think are right. She loves her daughter so much that she would join the side of evil simply to see her happy.

...

The end.


End file.
